Giant Kendama

Many are familiar with the popular Japanese toy the Kendama. This simple game involving the catching of a wooden ball attached to a string found surprising popularity, and today we are going to be making a project that takes the simple game one step further. Basically the project is just a giant version of a conventional Kendama, with the added bonus of being fully customizable as far as the cups go. I also decided to include a small pocket in my design, so the ball can be caught somewhere easily at the conclusion of, or in a trick series. Additionally I did not attached my ball to any sort of string, however that is just personal preference. The following will detail my personal design but feel free to extend to concept and incorporate your own ideas!

Materials:
Rubber lacrosse ball
Old lacrosse shaft (or similar length PVC pipe)
FOR THE MAIN HEAD: 3+ inches in diameter PVC pipe, at least 7 inches long
Small stretchy sock
Thin Bendable PVC 12+ inches long (or thick wire)
PVC joint fitted to bottom of shaft
OPTIONAL: Screw-able PVC inserts to make the holes smaller and more challenging.

The Build:

The build for this is pretty simple, it is mostly a matter of drilling holes large enough in the PVC to fit each respective component. However if you do miscalculate and the hole happens to be too big, a good trick is to wrap the shaft in duct tape until it fits snugly into the PVC. I started by drilling a hold in the bottom joint and then twisting it on. Then I drilled into the main head PVC through both the bottom and the top, and stuck the shaft ALL THE WAY THROUGH. This is an important step, otherwise you will have a shaky head. I then screwed one tip of the thin PVC on the back of the main head and bent it so the other tip could be screwed on adjacently. Finally I wrapped the sock around the thin PVC skeleton and the project was complete! I use a rubber lacrosse ball as the ball.